The US Environmental Protection Agency is providing a $331,000 low-interest loan to the City of Rochester, NY, to clean up abandoned and contaminated properties.

The funding is being awarded under the EPA’s brownfields program. It targets the removal and disposal of approximately 100 tons of hazardous soil, the treatment of contaminants at the site, five years of groundwater monitoring, and the completion of a site management plan.

“Cleaning up brownfields allows abandoned and contaminated properties to be cleaned up and revitalized as new parks, new housing and businesses that create jobs,” EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck said in a statement. “This funding will protect the health of area residents, and will help revitalize neighborhoods.”

Rochester will use this $331,000 low-interest loan for the cleanup of the Michelson Furniture Factory site in the northeast part of the city. The Urban League of Rochester Economic Development Corporation and Edgemere Development will transform two industrial buildings on the site into 59 apartments for low-income residents. The EPA loan will be used for a cleanup investigation.

There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites in the US. The EPA’s Brownfields Program targets these sites to encourage redevelopment, and help to provide the opportunity for productive community use of contaminated properties. The EPA’s brownfields investments overall have leveraged more than $20 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding from public and private sources and on average, $17.79 is leveraged for every EPA Brownfields grant dollar spent. The funds have enabled the support of 90,000 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.